Charlotte Sadashige, MSS¹, Helene Cross, PhD¹, Barbara Bolden, PhD¹, Michael Jaker, MD², and Cheryl Biber, DMD, MPH³. (1) Division of HIV/AIDS Services, New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, 50 East State St., 4th Floor, P.O. Box 363, Trenton, NJ 08625-0363, (609) 984-5940, charlotte.sadashige@doh.state.nj.us, (2) New Jersey Medical School Department of Internal Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 185 South Orange Ave., Newark, NJ 07103, (3) New Jersey Dental School Office of Academic Affairs, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 110 Bergen St., Newark, NJ 07103

Background: Individuals with limited access to healthcare often rely on hospital emergency departments for primary care. As such, emergency departments may be an environment that can provide an efficient gateway to HIV/AIDS-related care. The following anonymous unlinked HIV seroprevalence study was designed to determine the prevalence of HIV infection in patients visiting an urban academic hospital emergency department with a large indigent population in a high HIV prevalence region in Newark, New Jersey.

Methods: The study was approved by the institutional review boards of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Usable remnant serum from all adult patients who had blood drawn as part of their medical evaluation during a twelve week period at the end of 2002 were screened.

Results: Overall, 332 (10.4%) patients tested positive for HIV: 11.0% of men and 9.6% of women. Persons ages 40-44 (20.7%) had the highest rate of infection. Of seropositive patients, 198 (59.6%) reported a previous positive HIV test. HIV-infected women were more likely to know their HIV serostatus (65.6%) than were HIV-infected men (54.7%), but only 47 (23.7%) of seropositive patients reported using antiretroviral therapies.

Conclusions: Hospital emergency department HIV screening represents a prevention opportunity for persons not seeking HIV-related services. Based upon the high HIV prevalence rate found and the large percentage of HIV-infected individuals unaware of their infection, HIV counseling, testing, and referral could be effectively deployed within an emergency department.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• Identify HIV seroprevalence rates within demographic subgroups of the patient population visiting an urban academic hospital emergency department in a high HIV prevalence region in Northern New Jersey
• Identify HIV seroprevalence rates within demographic subgroups of the patient population with previsouly diagnosed versus undiagnosed HIV infection
• Recognize differences between patient population subgroups and within patient population subgroups
• Describe which factors predict HIV infection in different patient population subgroups

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.